ExclusiveMyanmar eyes return of tourism, investment to buoy struggling economy: junta official

Information Minister Maung Maung Ohn said Myanmar was planning to reopen its borders with Thailand and China starting in January

Business confidence is also returning, according to the junta official – despite international monitors’ concerns that the economy is in tatters

4-MIN READ4-MIN

A cyclist and street vendor pass in front of a construction site in Yangon, Myanmar. Photo: AP

Published: 3:34pm, 16 Nov 2021Updated: 9:33pm, 16 Nov 2021

Myanmar’s military government is hoping that an imminent reopening of international borders will further spur what it believes are signs of returning business confidence following the February 1 coup, a senior official has said.

Maung Maung Ohn, the junta’s information minister, said in an interview with This Week In Asia that authorities were planning to begin reopening land border crossings with Thailand and China by January.

After that, Myanmar plans to restart international commercial air travel – suspended since the coup – “by the end of the first quarter of 2022”, Maung Maung Ohn said.

The minister, a former army general, said Russia, China and private investors from India were among those eager for borders to reopen so that various deals could be sealed.

Myanmar Information Minister Maung Maung Ohn. Photo: Handout

International economic monitors suggest high inflation, cash shortages and rising food prices have left Myanmar’s economy in tatters following the military’s seizure of power from the democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD).

The Asian Development Bank forecasts that the country – one of Asia’s poorest – is likely to see its economy shrink by 18.4 per cent this year, in what would be one of the deepest contractions on record.